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Hanover family says talk of sex in Boy Scouts means it's time to leave

A Hanover woman said her sons, one of whom is an Eagle Scout, will end their relationship with the Boy Scouts since the recent vote made sex part of the Scouting conversation.

By BRANDIE KESSLER

For The Evening Sun

Posted:
05/25/2013 06:33:20 PM EDT

When the Boy Scouts of America voted Thursday to lift a ban on openly gay Scouts, many people rejoiced.

For Allison Mackey, of Hanover, and her family -- including her 19-year-old son who is an Eagle Scout, her three other Scouting sons, ages 16, 14 and 12, and her youngest son, 8, who planned to join -- Thursday was a sad day.

Prior to Thursday's vote, "talking about sex (within the Boy Scouts) was not encouraged at all," Mackey said. If a Scout was gay, she said, they could be a Boy Scout with no problem, providing they didn't talk about their sexuality or sex.

The vote changed that, she said. Sex became a part of the conversation.

"We don't have homophobia," she said, speaking for her conservative Christian family. What Mackey, her family, and many likeminded people were against, she said, was having the discussion in the first place.

It's the reason Mackey organized one of dozens of rallies held nationwide on May 17. She and other local Scouting families gathered outside of New Birth of Freedom Council in Mechanicsburg.

"The whole rally was about not bringing sex into Boy Scouts," she said.